Provannidae is a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

of deep water

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

marine Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean. Marine or marines may refer to: Ocean * Maritime (disambiguation) * Marine art * Marine biology * Marine debris * Marine habitats * Marine life * Marine pollution Military * ...

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

s in the superfmaily Abyssochrysoidea (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005 and updated in 2008 by Kaim et al.). MolluscaBase eds. (2021). MolluscaBase. Provannidae Warén & Ponder, 1991. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at: http://marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=382206 on 2021-03-15 The genera '' Provanna'' and '' Desbruyeresia'' have smaller and slender shells, while the shells of ''Alviniconcha'' and ''Ifremeria'' are larger and swollen. The shells of these two last genera house a hypertrophied ctenidium large quantities of symbiotic bacteria.

Habitat

These snails are part of the fauna of the deep-sea

hydrothermal vent A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspot ...

cold seep A cold seep (sometimes called a cold vent) is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. ''Cold'' does not mean that the temperature of the see ...

whale fall A whale fall occurs when the carcass of a whale has fallen onto the ocean floor at a depth greater than , in the bathyal or abyssal zones. On the sea floor, these carcasses can create complex localized ecosystems that supply sustenance to deep-s ...

s, and sunken driftwood environments.Suzuki Y. et al. (2006). "Single host and symbiont lineages of hydrothermal-vent gastropods ''Ifremeria nautilei'' (Provannidae): biogeography and evolution". ''Marine ecology''. Progress series. 315: 167-175
abstract

Taxonomy

The family Provaniidae was previously placed in the "Zygopleuroid group" (according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005). This family has no subfamilies according to the taxonomy of the Gastropoda by Bouchet & Rocroi, 2005. Subsequently, Provaniidae was placed in the superfamily Abyssochrysoidea Tomlin, 1927.Kaim A., Jenkins R. G. & Warén A. (2008). "Provannid and provannid−like gastropods from Late Cretaceous cold seeps of Hokkaido (Japan) and the fossil record of the Provannidae (Gastropoda: Abyssochrysoidea)". ''

Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society The ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering zoology published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Linnean Society. The editor-in-chief is Maarten Christenhusz (Linnean Society). ...

'' 154(3): 421-436. . There are some affinities with the

Littorinoidea Littorinoidea are a superfamily of both sea snails and land snails which have a gill and an operculum, terrestrial and marine gastropod mollusks in the clade Littorinimorpha. The terrestrial family within this group, the Pomatiidae, are sometim ...

as shown by molecular data and sperm ultrastructure Healy, J. M. 1990. ''Taxonomic affinities of the deep-sea genus Provanna: new evidence from sperm structure''; J. Molluscan Stud. 56: 119-122 Multi-gene analysis has shown that the family Provannidae is

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

. It is being treated as belonging to the superfamily Abyssochrysoidea until a new family-level revision has been undertaken.S. B. JOHNSON, A. WARÉN, R. W. LEE, Y. KANO, A. KAIM, A. DAVIS, E. E. STRONG and R. C. VRIJENHOEK, Rubyspira, new genus and two new species of bone-eating deep-sea snails with ancient habits; Biological Bulletin, Vol. 219, No. 2 (October 2010), pp. 166-177

Genera

Genera within the family Provannidae include: * '' Alviniconcha'' Okutani & Ohta, 1988 * '' Cordesia'' Warén & Bouchet, 2009 - with the only species ''

Cordesia provannoides ''Cordesia provannoides'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Provannidae. ''Cordesia provannoides'' is the only species in the genus ''Cordesia''. Description Distribution This species was originally desc ...

'' Warén & Bouchet, 2009Warén A. & Bouchet P. (2009). "New gastropods from deep-sea hydrocarbon seeps off West Africa". ''Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography'' 56(23): 2326-2349. * '' Desbruyeresia'' Warén & Bouchet, 1993 * '' Ifremeria'' Bouchet & Warén, 1991 ** '' Ifremeria nautilei'' - this species has endosymbiotic bacteria, which provide "food" via

chemoautotroph A Chemotroph is an organism that obtains energy by the oxidation of electron donors in their environments. These molecules can be organic (chemoorganotrophs) or inorganic (chemolithotrophs). The chemotroph designation is in contrast to phototrop ...

y. * '' Provanna'' Dall, 1918 * '' Rubyspira'' Johnson et al., 2010 (not assigned to a family) ;Genera brought into synonymy: * ''Olgaconcha'' L. Beck, 1991: synonym of ''Ifremeria'' Bouchet & Warén, 1991

References

* Warén, A., and W.F. Ponder. 1991, ''New species, anatomy, and systematic position of the hydrothermal vent and hydrocarbon seep gastropod family Provannidae fam. n. (Caenogastropoda)''. Zool Scr. 20: 27-56. {{Taxonbar, from=Q7145185 Caenogastropoda